Which Golf Swing Exercises actually Fix a Slice?

A slice happens when the club face is open both to your club path and to the target line. That's when we're going to see it go way offline, lose distance, and cause you trouble on the course. I'm Michael Dennington, PGA professional and head of performance here at DRVN Golf and Fitness.

And today, we are going to look through two sequences of exercises that can help you to instantly improve how you swing the club and reduce that slice you never want to see again. We are focusing in on two of the key [snorts] elements that golfers get wrong causing that slice. The first is body rotation.

Because if you cannot create a good full shoulder turn and load against the lower body, you're not going to be able to get the club traveling far enough and deep enough to then create the path that you need to release the club, create the right impact factors, and stop that face being open. To improve this, we're going to focus in on mobility and specifically how you turn around the spine. And you can use these three exercises back to back to really enhance your movement patterns, prepare your swing for your practice, and improve your awareness of how far to turn.

The first exercise is the wall hold T-spine. Okay, going into this split stance position and working a big range of motion around the spine allows you to improve your mobility but also fixes you in a position that increases your ability to actually feel what you need to do. So, we lock in against the wall.

We create asymmetry in the lower body and then we open up around the spine. Okay, do this slowly and with control. And as always, work both sides.

Be very aware of how much difference there is right to left because that might just match your golf swing and give you additional answers. You're going to hit at least 10 reps at a time slowly with control feeling how you unwind, feeling how the muscles all across the torso unlock to create that full range of motion. The next development from there is the rotational club press.

All right, and this is in your golf posture. This allows you to feel the turn and then add width. That is hugely important for power and high quality biomechanics.

So, taking your golf posture, feel the ground with full foot connection, and then you're going to turn into that hip. Okay, that is incredibly important. As you turn the torso, your hip will turn roughly half as far.

Meaning, if your shoulders turn 90°, your hip will rotate 45. This is that loading. This is where you feel that pressure that can unload and power your golf swing.

Once we've created that turn, you are then going to stabilize through the upper body and press away as far as you can. All right, increasing this range of motion, feeling how you get the arms away from the body will create the width, the arc, and the loading to get the club swinging more from the inside, squaring the face, and hitting longer, straighter shots. From there, we grab ourselves an exercise band.

And this is the most technical of this sequence. Hence why we go with the wall hole t-pine into the rotational press and then the swing arc pump drill. Okay, so this is increasing that feeling of being loaded up at the top of the back swing, firing the hips on the way down and staying in that posture.

You need to feel that unwinding of the body. The opposite of what we just did in the first two movements. Okay, so we build up that rotation.

Now we increase your awareness down into impact and how the rotational pattern is repeated from the back swing into the down swing. Again, work both sides of the body. Feel as though that band increases the stretch and pulls you into that position before you then fire the hips.

Work your way down and retain your posture every single rep. All right, this is a three-step sequence. It will help you to turn better around the spine, improve your positioning and consistency.

And when you do so, you can take that into your golf swing. Feel how the club gets more behind your body, but in a loaded optimal position, so you can unwind into the ball, create the path and face relationship that you need to hit it straighter and longer far more often. Our first focus was all about rotation and how the club travels around your body based on your range of motion, your flexibility.

Now we look at the actual mechanics of the swing. And this is where you're going to train a little bit differently. This is where we get faster.

This is where we get more dynamic. And this is where we fix you not only to hit it straighter, but hit it further and faster as well. Because this is sequencing, okay?

And we touched on this before. If we don't get that full range of motion, if we have the club out in front, we're going to pull down with the shoulders and swing across the ball. And of course, you can do that from a longer swing as well.

When the shoulders lead and the hips are too still too slow, the club is going to come out. That's going to give you the out path and that is going to hit you the slice. All right.

So, what we're looking at here is training in the gym to get you fully loaded through that rotation, but then to fire the hips first, keep the chest back, retain that tilt, and get the club traveling from the inside so we can snap the hips, release the hands, and create that optimal flight of hitting up on the ball from the inside with a club face that is squaring to the path. All right, that's what we're going to try and do. That is how you fix your slice.

And these three exercises are going to help you to move faster, build awareness, and develop the golf swing that you need. This is also a great sequence to follow on from your rotation because when you can move well, that is when you start to increase the speed and dynamism of your training to enhance your golf swing biomechanics. So, we start with the band and we finish with the band on the last set.

So, this is the perfect follow on. This one here is the rotational step to press. The key is all through the feet.

All right? As we step out into that band, we're going to step into our golf posture. We're going to push up and out of the ground with that contact, giving you increased awareness.

Fire the hips to the target and then unload with the upper body. This is the exact kinematic sequence that you use in the golf swing. Feet first up through the hips, through the torso, and then delivered with the upper body.

Be aggressive, move fast, and feel as though you have stability as well as speed in every single rep. And again, always work both sides. If your non-swing side can actually move faster and sequence movement better, you will see an increase in speed in your dominant side because your body doesn't have to slow you down as much.

It has more confidence. The brakes are off. Okay, so that's your step to press.

Super explosive. Really be aggressive. Okay, from there we go into the step to release.

And this is a similar pattern, but this is much more towards the actual feeling of the golf swing as opposed to pure upper body power output. Remember, each of these can be done with bands or cables. So, we're using the cables here.

Very much the same pattern of movement. We want to feel as though we step into the ground, push up, rotate the hips, and then pull that weight away from the body down the target line. Okay?

Really do focus in on your golf swing mechanics. Feel your swing patterns. Feel how you push that lead leg, fire the hips, and then get that weight moving every single time.

And you should not be using a super heavy weight here. You should be in control with precision and moving fast to enhance your golf swing. Finally, we grab ourselves a medball and have some real fun here.

This is the transitional slam. We're going to take that ball up. We're going to get tall and then we're going to work down into the ground.

We hear about that all the time. Ground reaction forces. That is what we are working on here.

Get the ball high, load into the ground, and then as we push up and fire the hips, slam the ball down behind you. And don't just stop there, okay? We download into the ground.

We unload the weight and then fire through with the hands. Okay? Keep the movement going because this is what we need to do in the swing if you really want to max out your speed.

Okay, we apply pressure, we apply the speed and then into impact is just release. Okay, that is where all the speed has already been generated and we release it into the ball. Okay, hit reps on both sides.

Work on your skill, work on the patterns developed here so that your feet are working against the ground and this transfers directly into your golf swing, fixing your slice and increasing distance. They have two three-step sequences to improve your rotation and your sequencing. How do you take this into your golf swing?

You practice and do the work. The key is that in the gym, we are improving how your body functions. When you then go to the golf course, you have more physically available to you to apply the skill, to apply your practice, and to improve how you hit the ball.

Okay? All of those feelings, that awareness, the sequencing will transfer when you are consistent and when you focus in on connecting your training to your golf swing. That is everything that we do at DRVN.

If you are looking for a full program with drills, coaching, and so much more, head over and try the DRVN app right now. [snorts] And make sure you hit like, hit subscribe, tell your friends if they're struggling with that slice as well. Let's help them out.

Let's move faster. Let's hit better golf shots. And let's all golf strong.